Atlas Gym, Thursday Afternoon

[firstofitskind]

Liam supposed it was a small comfort that while the trip to the gym had changed every day so far, the gym itself remained the way it had been when he'd first handwavily stopped by on Monday.

Still different than how it was during a usual week, but then what even was a usual week anymore, Liam found himself wondering as he started his workout. Which, this week, was allllll about the jumping from random floating pile of bricks to another random floating pile of bricks.

[ooc: open! it's my first real day off since i got back from sdcc PLEASE ENTERTAIN ME.]

Comments

[notallbluemonks]

Beau was absolutely rocking a raccoon suit when she came in.

And yelling, "Dude! Dude! Check this shit out!" as she took a running leap, floated right on past two levels of weirdly solid floating clouds up to some hovering bricks (snagging a few coins on the way), and then did a sort of fly-by punching on a mystery block for a mushroom as she leaped the gap to the next hovering brick platform.

[firstofitskind]

“I need to get me one of those!” Liam shouted up at her. For many reasons, one of which included taking a selfie to send to a certain friend who happened to be an actual tanuki.

[notallbluemonks]

"Gotta punch the right blocks," Beau yelled down at him. While unnecessarily hovering past two platforms she could've just hopped across. "If like a leaf pops out, grab it."

No, it still didn't make sense but whatever.

[firstofitskind]

“If a leaf pops out, right,” Liam echoed, shaking his head before starting another running jump towards the block that was just out of reach when he tried a standing jump.

This time, he managed to actually punch it. And coincidentally what should pop out but a leaf? He grabbed it as it floated down, and suddenly found himself clad in his own raccoon suit.

“Hah! Thanks for the heads up!” he called up to Beau.

[notallbluemonks]

"And now we match," Beau declared, nodding. "Might want to hang on to that, it's like super useful outside today."

[firstofitskind]

“Had a hell of a time getting here,” Liam acknowledged, taking out his Global to snap that selfie to send to Ryan.

“You know,” he mused as he took a few experimental jumps, getting used to how the tail propelled him through the air. “You’d think going around punching bricks would hurt more, and yet...”

[notallbluemonks]

"Nothing makes sense this week, man," said Beau, who'd found one of those blocks that would keep giving her coins if she kept punching it. Which was probably helping to prove Liam's point. "But at least it's just fucking weird and not weird and fucked up."

[firstofitskind]

“That’s true,” Liam muttered, floating up to join her. The day he’d spent as an Implant last week had definitely fucked with his head more than a bit.

[notallbluemonks]

"Also --" Beau jumped up and just tried to hover for a few seconds. "It's kinda super fun? Especially if you approach it like it's a game."

Because she would try and make it a competitive thing.

[firstofitskind]

“A game?” said the person who was still getting used to the idea of doing things purely for fun.

[notallbluemonks]

A pixelated pigeon flew by overhead cooing something that sounded like "Game! Game!" and then it was gone.

Beau eyed it suspiciously for a second then shook her head. "Yeah, I mean, like . . . see how many blocks you can break in a minute, or how long you can go dodging the duck-turtle things before you get sent home, or whatever. Just to challenge yourself. You know. Have fun?"

She totally got that, though. Having the freedom to just have fun was a pretty new thing for her, too.

[firstofitskind]

"... How did that even get in here?" Liam couldn't help but wonder.

"But you may be on to something there," he mused, whacking a brick that was in their way with his tail. How he knew to do that was anyone's guess; it just seemed to make a weird sort of sense, since the thing was too low for him to punch easily.

[notallbluemonks]

"What can I say? It was either have fun with it or keep complaining, and I think this entire summer has managed to max out even my capacity for complaining."

Which was saying something.

[firstofitskind]

Liam snickered. "Now that's impressive," he had to admit.

"Remember when the dinosaurs showed up and we were all complaining about the heat?" he asked philosophically. "Man, those were the days." When they thought it was just a one-off weird thing, before they'd realized the island was taking them on a summer-long tour of the multiverse.

[notallbluemonks]

"Impressive, or sad? I kinda can't decide," Beau said, scowling slightly. So there, at least it was comforting to know she was still cranky?

"Fuck, man, that feels like forever ago. I kinda miss the dinosaurs. They were cool."

Even if she'd never successfully managed to ride one of the flying ones.

[firstofitskind]

"They were kinda cool," Liam agreed. “The mice were big fans too, actually.”

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

Several minutes later, a text arrived.



THIS IS DISRESPECTING TANUKI CULTURE

and then

Also you sorta look like my uncle Kenji and it's weird.
Followed by ...and Istas passes along her congratulations for skinning a tanuki in battle and now we need to have another relationship talk.

THANKS LIAM

[firstofitskind]

Can you fly??? Because I can, right now. Liam texted back. Followed by a short, shaky video, clearly taken by someone else who was also flying, of Liam floating through the air using the tail to propel himself.

Then:

Also you're welcome

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

Do i even wanna know how tf you're doing that? Ryan asked. Also there's something wrong with your camera. Everythings's weird n grainy

[firstofitskind]

Not the camera, the island. Hard to explain unless you've ever been here tbh.

Did Ryan wanna come visit one day and possibly experience some of the nonsense for himself?

[cryptidsandkinfolk]

I'll add that to the 'do i even wanna know?' list, Ryan sent. ...dare u to send that to Candy with the caption '1 of us can fly and it's not u.'